Dune House

Dune House is separated from the ocean only by beach and dune. It is the last house in the neighborhood before a large expanse of public beach. At the far end of the beach is a decommissioned light house that, along with the house, “book-ends” the popular beach. This small house with big scale is monumental enough to not be overwhelmed by dramatic context, but not so monumental as to be serious and unfriendly. It is an object in the vast land and seascape but also a sympathetic neighbor to vernacular shingled houses. The “temple-front” entry facade closes o­ the view down a long street that runs along the shore. The big sheltering roof, however, domesticates the temple. The top-heavy nature of this umbrella gambrel with huge overhangs gives the front facade a whimsical feeling. Also contributing to the playful nature and unexpected scale of the facade are the wide flat columns. The extent of the footprint was predetermined by a previous non-conforming house on the site. A minimum depth was all that could be allotted to the symbolic front porch so as to maximize functional living space inside. The flat columns allow the elevational scale necessary without using up as much of the limited footprint as would columns with a depth equal to their width.